Lead Belly Sings "Goodnight Irene"

A folklorist, John Lomax and his son Alan Lomax, with funding from the Library of Congress recorded Huddie William Ledbetter, commonly known as Lead Belly or Leadbelly. They first meet him while he was imprisoned. They were deeply impressed by his vibrant tenor voice and huge repertoire, they recorded him on portable aluminum disc recording equipment for the Library of Congress. They returned to record with new and better equipment in July of the following year (1934), all in all recording hundreds of his songs. On August 1, Lead Belly was released (again having served almost all of his minimum sentence), this time after the Lomaxes had taken a petition to Louisiana Governor Oscar K. Allen at Ledbetter's urgent request. The petition was on the other side of a recording of his signature song, "Goodnight Irene."

They made this film for the Library of Congress.

For more information http:s//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_Belly

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